1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to the art of client/server computing in a network of computing systems.
2. Background Information
Networking of computer systems, and Client/Server Computing are known in the art. Conventionally, a client application discovers whether certain server applications are available in a network of computer systems by broadcasting discovery messages to all the nodes in the network. The server applications on the various nodes respond to the broadcast messages with response messages identifying their presence. Typically, each client application in the network would perform the discovery process a number of times in the course of its execution. As technology continues to advance, the number of nodes interconnected in a typical network, and the number of client and server applications executing on these nodes have increased significantly. As a result, the volume of network traffic incurred by client applications discovering server applications have reached an intolerable level in many medium to large networks. It is no longer uncommon for network administrators to impose filtering to filter out "low priority" network traffics, which often include server application discovery and response messages.
Thus, it is desirable to have a more efficient approach for client applications to discover server applications in a network of computer systems. As will be described in more detail below, the present invention achieves these and other desirable results.